If you have read reports and accounts of naval battles, the thing that will strike you is how easily a ship breaks down. It may be an unlucky hit in the boiler room, in the bridge, or a hit in the magazines and the fate of the battle is turned. It is not so much as how luck (or lack thereof) will get you stupidly killed, but how as a commander you manage your squadron when one of your ships suffers a temporary handicap. How quickly can you adapt your tactics when your ship's engine is out, or its gyroscopes make it tumble out of control ? How will you cover your ship that is currently rebooting its on-board artificial intelligence ? What can you do with a vessels whose coolant is leaking ? Critical damage is shown in red under your ship, with its repair time shown in seconds. It is shamelessly inspired by the game Wargame: Airland Battle by Eugen Systems.

Ouch ! My ship has severe critical damage: it cannot move, its energy will not be replenishing and it tumbles randomly.

Critical damage is temporary and concerns all ships, independently of what modules you have installed. It will hinder or cripple your ship for a short while -from 15 to 60 seconds- before it is automatically repaired. It is all about you adapting and making quick decisions. No two battles are the same with such damage.

The chances of critical damage currently look like this:- a basic low (1-2%) default chance on every hit- a 1-4% increase depending on the amount of damage the attack deals (may be increased to 1-9%)- a 1-5% increase depending on the state of the facing armor (may be increased to 1-10%)Of course, testing will reveal if such odds are fun or not, and we will react accordingly.